A Century of Ancient Town Records is Rediscovered and Revealed

An embarrassment of riches describes a vault filled with thousands of documents in seven thick volumes that were handwritten in homemade ink with quill pens and recorded the entire first century of a town's colonial beginnings. These records were so extensive however, they defied comprehensive transcription and publication attempts. These riches were inaccessible. Scribbled, scratchy, chaotically organized and seemingly often illegible, they showed a dedication to documenting this world in erratic spelling, layout and order. They resisted untangling for over three centuries until the advent of technology. Now addressed with voice dictation, digital reordering and editing, they finally reveal the inner workings of this world with all of its 18th century challenges and solutions in two volumes. A boon for genealogy, hundreds of people are newly located in this time and place. For history research, a colonial First Period town is fully documented in its strategies to order themselves, their society, geography, and their governance. An era undocumented and utterly unrecognizable today, one marvels how time can now be so wonderfully travelled.